MYTHS + MISCONCEPTIONS
The DOJ website is still quoting false statistics
Is one of the most-cited statistics about sex work wrong?
Maggie McNeill rocks it in this interview, as she explains the research that was misquoted that said: “the teenagers were just at risk”.
Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways
“Nearly all of the youths—95 percent—said they exchanged sex for money because it was the surest way to support themselves.
These agencies might improve upon their $400,000-per-rescued-child average if they joined in the effort to develop a clearer picture of the population they aim to aid. But there’s no incentive for them to do so when they stand to rake in, even more, public money simply by staying the course.”
The average age into prostitution is 17 to 25, not 13 or 14
Sex workers organizations have done their own research and the findings are much different.
The average age of entry into prostitution is 17 to 25
- The average age of those arrested for prostitution-related charges are 25 to 65
- When we look at all the prostitution and disorderly conduct arrest in the US from 1981 until 2013, we find that only 1.8% of these cases involved minors.
It also looks like in many states that they were arresting more minors for prostitution in the 80’s and 90’s than they did in more recent years. Please note this data was taken from the FBI + DOJ websites yet this is not what they have been reporting to Congress + the media.
It seems criminalization of consensual adult sex work has been a complete failure.
Operation Cross Country. This is what rescued looks like.
July 2014, 8500 US cops went to 101 cities within 1 week, and they arrested over a thousand consensual adult sex workers. They also recovered 165 teenagers, the majority of them were 17 year of age, most had run away from foster-homes and many had not been reported missing by dept of families services. They found an average of 1 and a half minors in each city. It took 40 to 50 cops for each teen they recovered. They also arrested 281 pimps. Keep in mind that anyone a sex worker hires is classified as a pimp/trafficker by US law: our drivers, bodyguards, office assistance, our adult children our spouses, our landlords.
2011- 2014 OPERATION CROSS COUNTRY – THE LIES THE STATS THE QUESTIONS
Take off the cape: Why using the word “rescue” is harmful to anti-trafficking efforts
“….When you say that you “rescued” someone, that statement is about empowering and aggrandizing yourself while disempowering the person you think you rescued. This is because “rescuing” creates an uneven power dynamic where the “rescuer” (read: hero) has all of the power in the relationship and the “rescuee” (read: helpless victim) has no agency or role in the exit of his or her abusive.”
The Trafficking Victim Protection Act
The TVPA says that anyone who “harbors a prostitute is guilty of trafficking. Ironically the word “Harbor” means to protect. The TVPA also states that all minors and immigrants arrested for prostitution are classified as trafficking victims. Once an immigrant is arrested for prostitution, they are told that if they will not say that they are a victim and were forced into prostitution, that they will be deported immediately. Even after the immigrant lies and says that they are a victim and helps the US government get a conviction for trafficking, most are deported anyway. The immigrant women are locked up in shelters for up to 2 or 3 years and detained and not allowed contact with their families or cell phones. The traffickers do not even have to take their passports because just the threat of deportation will keep these victims from reporting their abuse to the authorities.
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/response/grants/
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/intprog/index.htm
RESCUE PIMP FUNDING
The Hunt sisters: “Doing it for themselves.
In 2013 the US supreme court struck down the anti-prostitution pledge as unconstitutional. Any country that refused to sign the pledge was not eligible for US HIV funding. In Brazil prostitution is legal and their HIV+ std rates are down and they refused to sign the anti-prostitution pledge..
The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and EFF filed a federal class-action lawsuit to block implementation of unconstitutional provisions of Proposition 35 – a ballot measure passed by California voters that restricts the legal and constitutionally protected speech of all registered sex offenders in California.
What’s The Cost of a Rumor (super bowls) 2009
2013 Brazil over 100 sex workers illegal arrested, robbed and raped by police
UNRAVELING: ANTI TRAFFICKING NGO’s + THE GARMENT INDUSTRY
FROM SOMALY MAM TO “EDEN”: HOW SEX TRAFFICKING SENSATIONALISM HURTS SEX WORKERS
“When I asked about the negative effects the law might have on sex workers, I was told they didn’t really matter or were even a good thing. ‘I think of course the law has negative consequences for women in prostitution but that’s also some of the effects that we want to achieve with the law,’ Martin said. ‘It shouldn’t be as easy as it was before to go out and sell sex.”